Working with MJK Productions, Zieba had been one of the front-runners in nudging the BRIT Awards live television show into the digital age six years ago, and once again it was left to Britannia Row Productions to fulfill the exacting control and PA requirements.
With Paul McCartney headlining on the Punk Stage (and picking up the BRIT Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music), Zieba had little hesitation in specifying a Digidesign Venue system - the digital desk of choice for McCartney's (aka "Macca") long-term FOH sound engineer, Paul "Pab" Boothroyd.
Many of the sound engineers for other nominees and acts performing on the Punk Stage - including FOH engineers Matt Kettle (Mark Ronson) and Chris Leckie (Kaiser Chiefs) - were equally delighted to see a full Venue D-Show mixing console, 16-fader Sidecar extender, FOH Rack, and Stage Racks set up. Zieba also installed VENUEPack plug-ins - allowing sound engineers to simply show up with their own session files on USB and iLok Smart Keys and load their preprogrammed show files.
Britannia Row had a number of their own technicians on hand to support any engineers who were new to the digital world, including Josh Lloyd, Dave Pointer, and Chris Morrison (who also took over FOH duties on the D-Show for Rihanna from regular FOH man Davie Kirkwood).
(Jim Evans)
